i just installed my new kenwood cd player, i bought it off of ebay and it was brand new and still has the 2 year warranty. now iv only used it about 3 times now and after about 10-15 minutes after it gets hot the sound goes out. then when it cools off a little the sound comes back in. now i rewired the speakers and put a block of wood under it to keep it off the carpet but it still does it. what should i do? the only difference in teh wiring between this one and my old pioneer is i used these blue tube connectors that you crimp instead of the twist adn tape methode. what should i do? im pretty sure i voided my warranty since i installed it myself so i dont want to damage it by letting it keep doing this.

 

First off, installing a stereo yourself doesn't always void a warranty. Obviously the manufacturer won't honor the warranty if the unit was damaged by faulty installation. But what they usually do is reduce the warranty time for non-profesional installations.

As far as your problem. Overheating occurs when a component tries to move too much power. Most of the time this is due to a short circuit. This will probably be happening in one of two places. Either a speaker wire or a circuit in the head unit. You said that you rewired the speakers. Do you mean you ran completely new speaker wire from the HU to all 4 of the speakers? I'm assuming that when the HU does work that all 4 speakers are working properly. If you have a dead speaker somewhere, that could be the source of your problem.

If all of your speakers and wiring/connections are good, then I would contact kenwood about having it replaced under the warranty.

 

i did some searching today, there was a loose conection from the ignition wire so i fixed that but it wasnt super loose, just a little. i havent had any problems with my speakers, they always worked before. i ran new wires to the rear 2 speakers when i took out my intrior but the ones up front looked good so i left them alone. and even when the sound goes out it will still beep and stuff. adn then when u let it sit about 5 minutes the sound comes back in. i also taped up all the blue connectors this time because i was afraid they might be getting hot or something. if the problem keeps up i will call kenwood

 

i dont know what model of kenwood you have but i had the same problem with mine it would play and overheat i had it checked out by kenwood and they told me the internal mosfet amp was defective , so i'm thinking this could be the same problem with yours

 

my model is a kdc-319, do you have to send the hole unit in to them? or can u just have it fixed and then them re-imburse you? also do you have to send in the wiring harness? i dont really want to have to re-wire it.

 

i brought mine into kenwood , but you dont need to take out the wiring harness even if you took it to an electronic repair centre they should have adapters to check the head unit

 

i looked at my manuals and i went to kenwood.com and i found a service center about 50 miles from me so im going to send it there. but if you dont have a reciept will they still fix it? like i said i got mine off of ebay and i used paypal so i dont really have a reciept. how long did it take them to fix yours?

 

well that could be a problem and i say that because they told me kenwood that is said if i didnt have a reciept they wouldnt even look at it and if they did look at it they would charge me 1 hour labour, now the other thing they asked me and they precautioned me, they also said that they do a seriel check on the head unit if i didnt have a reciept and they where implying that if its hot they'll take action, now what i'm trying to tell you is that if you dont have a bill think twice before you bring it in since you dont know if the guy you bought it off really bought the deck or aquired it (hint) maybe your better off going to a stereo shop , a guy i deal with was telling me a while back that when they order parts from the factory the have to give seriel numbers for it, try to find someone you know to fix it

 

There is one more thing you could check before f’n with the MFG. Check the impedance of the speaker with an Ohmmeter at the back of the HU. They should be close to 4ohms. You “could” have a bad speaker that still sounds OK but is less then 4 ohms and that would cause the problem your describing.

 

the place i bought it from said they would take care of it, so hopefully they do. whats an ohm meter? is it the thing that has 2 clamps and u clamp it to the wire and then it has a little meter that goes up? if not do they rent them at autozone?

 

yes thats what an ohm meter is hook it up and check to see how many ohms its putting out

 

You can get one for $10-15 and it's an invaluable tool in troubleshooting your electrical system. Most parts stores sell them, or you can go to home depot, lowes, and sometimes even walmart has them.

 

yes joezero is right you can buy one pretty much anywhere walmart sells them for about 10 bucks and its probably the most usefull tool when it comes to checking electrical problems on your car , takes out the guessing game for most people

 

I have gone through two cd players now that have over heated. The problem is the way the heater is set up. Heat is blown directly down on top of the cd player to come out the two small side vents on the center consol. Its a stupid design. So far the only thing I can do is have the blower off and on cold and the cd player works fine. If I have the heat on, even on low, the speakers sound muffled after about 25 minutes of driving. I am currently trying to make a heat shield out of some thin sheet metal so I can revert the heat around and down past the cd player to the vents. If the heat keeps blowing on the cd player I am almost guaranteed to fry another one. Hope this helps out a bit.

 

I had the same exact problem with a Kenwood, I checked and rechecked all the wires. It was the headunit.